Bumpers are well known and documented. Bumpers provide vehicles with protection from collisions, and are designed to make the vehicle more aesthetically pleasing. Bumpers are often molded using a plastic injection mold and cover the rear or front end of a vehicle. It may be desirable to provide bumpers with a surface for which to seal the bumper to the vehicle. Accordingly, bumpers may be manufactured with undercuts, or walls extending from a free edge of the bumper so as to provide a surface for sealing the bumper to the vehicle body. Sealing the bumper to a portion of the vehicle body is desirable because the seal helps improve the vehicle's aerodynamics.
The need of an undercut or wall requires that the mold use what is referred to in the art as a lifter. The lifter is a device in the mold that allows the mold to disengage from the formed part without destroying the wall or undercut. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 5,814,357 to Boskovic discloses a core lifter system for a plastic injection mold with a core blade that is used not only to provide the undercut, but also to aid in the injection of the formed mold part. However systems such as core lifters increase the cost of injection molding apparatus which consequently increases the manufacturing costs. Accordingly, it is desirable to have a bumper that does not require the use of a cut-out or wall in order to seal the bumper to the vehicle body so as to save on manufacturing costs. At the same time, it is desirable to have a bumper panel assembly that may be sealed to the vehicle body so as to improve the aerodynamics of the vehicle.
As stated, bumpers not only provide protection to the passengers, but also add to the vehicle's aesthetic beauty. Current vehicle trends involve the use of a styling line to add to the aesthetic beauty of a vehicle. A styling line is a term used in the art to define a visible line on the surface of a vehicle body. In some instances, the styling line may be defined by the space between two adjoining panels of the vehicle body, and in other cases the styling line is etched onto the surface of the vehicle body. Thus it is desirable to have a vehicle bumper with a styling line so as to add to the aesthetic quality of the vehicle.